Today Saturday is a good day to relax, switch from enriched sodas to caffeine-free Soba-Cha and, generally speaking, chase these week days daemons away. What if it also were a time to brush up on computer environment ergonomics?

When I received my first Mac, a top-of-the-line Performa 5200 running system 7.5.1, I spent quite a bit of time looking at the “Ergonomic recommendations” section of my user manual. After a few lines, it was clear I would never be able to follow any of them, for lack of understanding what most of the advice was about.

Today however, many years later, probably encouraged by some unknown stiffness in my shoulders, I had a browse through the Apple Ergonomics pages again. Surprise! They’ve been entirely redesigned, complete with drawings and tables, contain clear advice and, above all, explain the most frequent causes for each condition that can arise out of a bad working environment.

Whether you use a Mac, a DragonFly BSD box or are composing the next Great French Novel, may I suggest you take a few minutes out of this week-end and check these out? Hats off to whoever designed them!